Dhaka signs four metro contracts as costs on two lines rise by more than 117%
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd signed four contracts on Oct. 27 for 11.5 km of elevated track, eight stations and two depots on MRT Line-1 and Line-5 North, weeks after the government approved budgets that more than double the 2019 estimates for both lines.
Three joint ventures split the packages, the Road Transport and Highways Division said in a release carried by The Business Standard and The Daily Star. CREC-MIL-MBEC JV took both elevated packages: a 5.007 km viaduct with three stations on Line-1, and 6.5 km with five stations on Line-5 North. SINOHYDRO-SEBCL JV has the Line-1 depot, 49 structures in all, and CPC-HANIL JV gets the Line-5 North depot. BSS reported that CREC-MIL-MBEC groups China Railway Group, Max Infrastructure and China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, and that CPC-HANIL pairs Concord Pragatee Consortium with Hanil Engineering & Construction.
The government purchase committee cleared the four contracts on Oct. 1 at a combined Tk 11,338 crore (a crore is 10 million taka), within eight packages worth Tk 58,478 crore, BSS reported. The other four, all on Line-1, are two main-line packages led by Tokyu and Nishimatsu and track and systems contracts for Larsen & Toubro. The reports on Tuesday's signing did not cover those four.
The budgets behind them have more than doubled. On Sept. 16 the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved Tk 114,395 crore for Line-1, up 117.6% from the Tk 52,561 crore set in 2019, UNB reported. Line-5 North rose 117.9%, to Tk 89,848 crore from Tk 41,239 crore, and its completion target moved from 2028 to 2032. The revision cited design and tender delays during Covid-19 and the difficulty of building Bangladesh's first underground line, plus larger stations, relocated entrances and vent shafts and about 20 km of detour roads.
JICA is the main lender. Its loan grows to Tk 83,843 crore on Line-1 and Tk 67,518 crore on Line-5 North, according to UNB. Prothom Alo reported that Line-1 will run 31 km from the airport to Kamalapur with 21 stations, and Line-5 North 20 km from Hemayetpur to Bhatara with 14.
Why it matters: Both budgets more than doubled, partly because detailed design added bigger stations, moved shafts and detour roads. On this JICA-funded job, Chinese-led ventures won three of the four packages signed, while Japanese-led and Indian firms hold the main-line, track and systems packages.
Sources
- ECNEC clears three metro rail projects involving Tk 2.50 lakh croreUNB, Sep 16
- Govt clears eight contracts worth 58,477.74cr taka for MRT Line-1, Line-5Daily Waadaa (BSS), Oct 1
- Dhaka metro rail expansion: Contracts signed for 11.5km of tracks, 8 stationsThe Daily Star, Oct 27
- Contracts signed for MRT Line-1, Line-5 constructionThe Business Standard, Oct 27
- Metro rail: Formal work kicks off for stations, tracks construction of 2 new routesProthom Alo, Oct 27